SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The Texas Rangers’ opening day starting rotation will not feature Yu Darvish. It will not feature comeback kids Colby Lewis or Matt Harrison. It will not feature a single member of the 2013 opening day rotation.

What it will feature: A heavy emphasis on scouting and player development.

On a hectic day in which the Rangers’ spring training campus become more of a train depot than a clubhouse, the club closed the Arizona portion of the spring training schedule by announcing a starting rotation of Tanner Scheppers, Martin Perez, Robbie Ross, Joe Saunders and … Nick Martinez.

This came moments after general manager Jon Daniels announced that Darvish’s sore neck isn’t a long-term concern but will send him to the disabled list to start the season and that the Rangers were tossing recycling project Tommy Hanson onto the compost heap.

Instead, Scheppers, a setup man last year, will get the opening day start against Cliff Lee. He’ll become the first pitcher since 1981 and only the second since the end of World War II to make his first start on opening day. The other guy was Fernando Valenzuela, and the pomp didn’t seem to overwhelm him.

Scheppers will be followed by Perez, who began last year in the minors; Ross, another bullpen convert; Saunders, a veteran journeyman signed two weeks into camp after spending 2013 with Seattle and Martinez, who is 23, has exactly four starts above Class A and pitched all of 21/3 innings in the major league camp this spring. And two of those were on Tuesday.

If you are counting, four of those five are guys the Rangers discovered and developed. For an organization trying to emphasize that ideal in building a pitching staff, the numbers pop.

“What really jumps out at me is that despite the issues we’ve faced and despite trading some depth in recent years, we have four homegrown talented starters ready to turn to,” Daniels said. “It says a lot about our system and our scouts and coaches to put us in this position. Some people see our rotation and worry. Not me. I’m excited about it and proud.”

OK, reality probably warrants a disclaimer: It’s easier to be excited about the rotation knowing that it’s probably a temporary situation. Before the end of April, it’s conceivable the Rangers could have three starters capable of 200-inning workloads ready to return.

Lewis, who pitched five shutout innings Wednesday, will pitch again on April 1 and April 6 with the idea to get him to close to 100 pitches and then to see how his hip responds five days later. If that goes well, he could move into the rotation on April 11, perhaps limiting Martinez’s tenure to one start.

Harrison will pitch three innings Friday against Houston in San Antonio as he moves back to a once-every-five-days schedule typical of a starter. If his surgically repaired back doesn’t flare up, he’d be ready to join the rotation by April 23.

Darvish will play catch on Saturday and then the Rangers will devise a return plan, but he’s had a pretty full spring training and is coming back from a fairly minor injury. He may need as little as a bullpen session or two and a rehab start to be ready. A potential arrival date: somewhere between Lewis and Harrison.

In the meantime, the Rangers’ goal is to tread water. When they had to do so a year ago, drafted-and-developed Nick Tepesch and Justin Grimm helped them paddle. A year ago, the Rangers got 119 starts from players who had spent their entire professional careers with the Rangers. That was up from 85 in 2012, 68 in 2011 and 79 in 2010.

It’s conceivable that between Scheppers, Ross, Perez, Darvish, Derek Holland and Martinez, the Rangers could come close to or eclipse that mark in 2014. To keep pushing the needle up on homegrown starts only reduces long-term costs since pitching is so wildly expensive and opens possibilities to invest elsewhere when needed.

It’s not that the Rangers didn’t bring in veterans to compete for jobs. It’s that when it came time to make decisions, the Rangers felt better about their own pitchers than to keep recycling while hoping for replacement level starts. Nowhere was that more clear than in the decision to go with Martinez over Hanson. By jettisoning Hanson, the Rangers also saved themselves $2 million for perhaps as little as one start.

“You look at what Tanner Scheppers has done, and he earned this,” manager Ron Washington said. “Robbie has earned this. Nick Martinez has potential. I’ve never wavered in my confidence in our pitching. I’m confident that we will be competitive with what we’ve got.”

What the Rangers have is a homegrown rotation. Due to extreme circumstances, they may be taking the mound a bit earlier than would be optimal, but in this cobbled-together rotation, the Rangers see a short-term solution and long-term benefits.